Welcome

For an unidentifiable reason, Daphne had woken up from her late afternoon nap with an undeniable urge for lime. A detailed search of her flat turned up nothing even remotely lime-flavoured. Pillows, clothing, magazines, books, and art supplies had been tossed about in her seek and consume mission, leaving her flat looking like it had been hit by a small hurricane. How was an artist supposed to create without limes?

After scouring the city for about an hour and sending a VERY important owl, Daphne had managed to locate lime gummy worms, gummy bears, jellied lime in sparkling sugar, lollies, soda, gum, and finally a slice of key lime pie. Her pie had been discovered at a small restaurant in central London, the restaurant where she presently sat. Disregarding any sense of the appropriate way to behave in restaurants, Daphne emptied her loot out onto her table and began to sort it. Her first task in sorting dealt with the shade of green a particular item took on, then size was taken into consideration. She worked until the waiter brought out her wedge of creamy, limey delight, then Daphne gave him a wacky look before he quickly left the table.

A greedy grin placed itself on her face while she took in her loot. Perhaps the best thing about having no murderous, sex-fiend, muggle-hating parents to listen to was the option to eat as much rubbish as one wanted. Daphne could have cackled in her delight at all of the sweet, tooth-rotting, stomach ache inducing items on her table. And they were hers! ALL HERS! She didn't have to share with her perverted brothers. She didn't have to share with anybody. Daphne laughed at loud, enjoying thoroughly when the couple at the table next to her glanced in her direction. She kissed the air at them and winked at the man.

Without further ado, she plunged her fork into the pie and brought up about a quarter of the slice. The food was shoved into her mouth as she rolled her eyes in utter contentment and very vocally appreciated the lime. "MMMMMM!" she half moaned while slapping her hand on the table. "Orgasmic" was the description she was after in her grab for acknowledgement. Daphne was a master at attracting enough attention to be noticed, but not enough to get kicked out of a place -- at least initially. Her taffeta-stuffed dressed rustled around her as she danced in place, the aluminium-like material on top catching light and sending the blinding rays back into the restaurant.

A scrutinizing eye moved along the walls of the muggle restaurant. Anneliese was less than impressed with the décor. A blatant attempt at modern chic had been made, but with the more romantic elements presented on the tables the place seemed like a hodgepodge of faux class. She found herself deciding the only thing they could have done to make it worse would be the addition of one of those aquariums for people to select their own lobsters. Eliese didn't take issue with eating sea creatures, she just thought displaying them in the restaurant was tacky on level with neon paisley or pastel plaid. An old painting was appraised, and she quickly decided that there may have been decorations worse than the feeding tank.

Anneliese would have left the establishment had the owl sent to her not been so interesting and mysterious. Her mystery date would have to be pretty spectacular to make up for the restaurant. If a prank was underfoot, she was determined to track down the owl responsible for the letter's delivery, scramble its little mind, alter its colour and shape, and then donate it to the post owl service in London. The person responsible for the joke would be found, and Anneliese toyed with transferring her plans for the owl to its sender.

The maitre d' returned after a brief journey into the main dining room. He smiled at her in what could only be described as an oily manner, and then led her into the larger room. On one wall she spotted the lobster shack, and Anneliese died a little on the inside. The opposite wall had a small sheet of water trickling down into a trough of rocks. Her grandmother's lessons about social etiquette were momentarily forgotten as Anneliese's jaw dropped in disdain. The white twinkle lights were horribly enough, but they had honestly decided to go with two trite water features?

She was on the verge of turning on her heel and leaving. Anybody who thought she would enjoy this place was clearly an idiot, not mysterious and definitely not interesting. It was during her contemplation that she realised the maitre d' was leading her toward a table with a blonde. Eliese tried to place the person and stopped 5 feet short of the table when the unbelievably shiny silver dress caught her attention. Only one person would have the nerve to go out of her flat looking like a baked potato, and that moment she looked up. Any hope of immediate escape was dashed when a waiter accidentally bumped into Anneliese and sent her flying toward Daphne's table.

The couple across from Daphne were intensely uncomfortable. Their discomfort was a direct result of Daphne licking her fork in a suggestive way while eyeing the silver fox. The woman with him was outraged, irritated, and more than a little weirded out. The man didn't suffer from the first two problems, but it was obvious to most (other than Daphne) that her erotic display was more disturbing to him than it was tempting. She giggled and plunged the fork back into her pie. Her next plan had been to smear a little of the creamy, light yellow-green substance of her pie on her lips just to lick it off and further create a scene.

Daphne would have gotten herself in a fight had Anneliese not stumbled over her feet in excitement while quickly approaching the table. Daphne beamed at the witch and former housemate. She was positively thrilled the slightly older witch was so happy to see her.

No attempt at a greeting was bothered with. Having stuffed herself with lime candies, only angels were on her mind. Fallen angels! Daphne cooed in her own head, loving the sense of danger and wickedness she associated with the other witch. The corruptive forces of Anneliese Tallis were forces Daphne had convinced herself she had experienced several years ago. Little doubt remained in Daph's head about Anneliese's attempts to seduce her during the 5 years they shared a common room in Slytherin.

"Remember that time you molested me, Anneliese?" Daphne began brightly, getting right to the point of the invite.

Katherine had finished work later than usual and it was not often that she was glad to be out of work, but today marked a change in that routine. Her desk's usual neatness had been disturbed by the arrival of a clerk with a list of problems as long as her arm for Katherine to troubleshoot. Obviously, she had quickly analysed the list and prepared a seperate list which prioritised everything and boxed it neatly. Regardless, despite her ability to quickly handle the situation, it had thrown a spanner into her otherwise perfectly planned day.

She had left the Ministry rather quickly, pounding the pavement until she encountered the first restaurant she could find. Sitting down, pulling her black pencil skirt beneath her as she did so, she ordered an espresso and a salad without even looking at the menu. Pulling out some paperwork from her bag, Katherine began to flick through it, analysing the contents with a perfectly manicured finger. She might have finished work, but in Katherine's mind that didn't permit her to slack off.

Her coffee arrived and Katherine gratefully took a sip. She had a meeting to prepare for which was scheduled for first thing in the morning and she had to explain a rather nasty explosion on the third floor of the Ministry and equally distribute the blame based on the investigative reports that she had received.

Lifting her cup to take another sip, Katherine took a mouthful as she skimmed over the report detailing the build up to the events that caused the explosion. "Remember that time you molested me, Anneliese?" The voice was bright and almost full of energy and Katherine, unable to comprehend such a vulgar outburst choked loudly as she tried to supress the primitive urge to spit her coffee all over her report.

After a few moments of coughing which led to her face turning a deep shade of red, Katherine straightened up, tugging the lapels of her suit jacket down and then flattening them. Quickly running a hand over her head to ensure her hair was still pulled back in a tight bun, she took a deep breath to compose herself before turning to find the owner of the voice.

Katherine was pretty sure she wasn't going to say anything, but she fully intended to locate the female who had so blatantly and openly declared her memory of sexual abuse and at least give her a look that made her aware that that sort of behaviour was just not acceptable in a public place. This is not group therapy for goodness sakes.

If the all too helpful maitre d' didn't budge, Anneliese was seriously considering clawing at his face to get out. Manners be damned. Her grandparents would understand if they too had been tricked into meeting a social liability like Daphne Popplehale. Eliese cringed as the other witch acknowledged her with an insane smile. Skin crawling, a thin sheet of perspiration threatening to coat her forehead, Anneliese took a step back nearly stumbled over her own heels.

"Remember that time you molested me, Anneliese?"

Anneliese's jaw dropped as her face distorted into a mask of sheer disgust. What was more disgusting she couldn't decide: Daphne's take on what had happened or that she had actually snogged with the Blonde twit ONCE 7 years ago. In her defence, Anneliese convinced herself, she had been too drunk, too angry at her ex-boyfriend, and too devoid of physical attentions. She had simply assumed Daphne's crazy wouldn't go far, because she had been under the impression the other girl was just as drunk. Unfortunately for her, neither forgot the experience. Daphne was a wretched kisser and she had clumsy fingers.

A deep breath was taken while Anneliese composed herself. Daphne looked up at her like an idiot Labrador retriever. "Miss Popplehale, I do not appreciate you intrusion into my daily affairs, nor your insinuations about my role in your past." She had a good mind to slap the git, but refrained on the basis that violence and mad denial would make Daphne's accusations slightly more plausible. "Please do not contact me again, or I will contact the proper authorities to ensure you are incapable of harassing me without stiff legal consequence." While she spoke, she glared daggers at the young woman.

Daphne wasn't give the option for attentive rebuttal. Anneliese left the restaurant and tried to hold her head high until she could disapparate in the nearby alley.

A strong eye was kept on Anneliese as she reacted. Daphne had grappled with arranging the meeting for an entire seven minutes before sending out the post owl with the note attached. True, Anneliese had violated her at the tender of age of 20. True, she had been upset when the other witch had exercised her will upon her and forced her to comply with kisses and such. Daphne had enjoyed their exercise in experimentation, but she never thought of herself as a wilful participant. So what if had initiated the action with Anneliese, and had not attempt to stop the liaison at all. Clearly Anneliese was a child molester.

Daphne glared at the cool presented by the other witch. She felt rejected, because she had been hoping for a repeat performance. "Fine you big..." she struggled for the most hurtful, cruel thing she could call the witch. "CACA HEAD!" Satisfied with her acidic tongue, she hurled a few gummy worms for good measure. The worms failed to hit their target, though one worm did hit somebody. The somebody in question was recognised as the woman who had choked very loudly while Anneliese had been trying to seduce Daphne again.

Sputtering on one's food and drink in a restaurant was a cry for attention, and Daphne wasn't sure she wanted to oblige. Of course the witch reasoned, her cry for attention could have been to capture my attention. I wonder if she's been molested by Anneliese too. Or maybe she's from that new Anime club I joined! The flash of Dante from "Devil May Cry" fame only served to cool her blood momentarily. Daphne was still feeling hurt and saddened by Anneliese's cold shoulder. The choking woman could surely understand the pain of true love not coming to fruition, being a victim of molestation, and the hotness of half-demons.

Anger raging in her system from her earlier confrontation, the table where the event had happened was too sullied for her to stay. Daphne picked up her candies, drink, and half-eaten key lime pie. Without so much as an invitation, she put her loot on the table where the gummy worm woman sat. Reigning in her crazy eyes, she flopped down across from the seemingly prim and proper redhead.

"'ello, poppet," she said with a grin. Daphne didn't bother to wait for any kind of acknowledgement before launching into her life story.

"I'm Daphne. That girl molested me a few years ago, can you believe her?" Anneliese bit off the head of a gummy worm, then shoved the bag toward the redhead in offering. "Want some?" she asked with a full mouth before returning to chewing and mulling over the evilness that was Anneliese Tallis.

Katherine, eventually locating the epicentre of the commotion within the restaurant watched on in further disbelief as the blond, who appeared to be the owner of the voice and a much feistier woman had it out. Do people not have any form of etiquette and self respect these days?

Fixing them both with a stare that a basilisk could be proud of, Katherine's expression vaguely resembled someone who had just had their first taste of a prune before she turned her pack on the duo. "Typical under classmen..." she muttered under her breath before patting her hair to check its state.

Extracting a pen from the breast pocket on her blouse, Katherine flattened the rather thick report on the table in front of her and began to scan over it, circling phrases or words she felt didn't tie in with the run upto the explosion. Occasionally taking a sip from her coffee, Katherine began to relax. Working was a form of therapy for Katherine and was one of the only things she thoroughly enjoyed.

It was then that something small and rubbery bounced off the back of Katherine's head and with a satisfying plop, dropped into her coffee. Sitting stock still, Katherine's grip on her pen tightened slightly. There was a brief flash of irritation across Katherine's face before it was replaced with her usual blank and stony expression. Deciding to take the high route, Katherine sat upright thoroughly ignoring the blond female and attempted to locate a waitor.

It was then that the blond woman decided it would be appropriate to come and sit at Katherine's table, dumping her own food and things all over Katherine's nice and neat space. The itch of Katherine's compulsion to instantly organise everything, either by size order or in a nice neat stack drove through Katherine's system and left her finger tips twitching.

"'ello, poppet, "I'm Daphne. That girl molested me a few years ago, can you believe her?" Katherine stared at the girl who had just introduced herself as Daphne in horror. Oh, this is too far. The girl then decided that it would now be acceptable to lift the bag full of sweets towards Katherine, causing Katherine to recoil slightly. "Want some?"

Tutting in disaproval, Katherine shook her head slightly. Sweets? In a restaurant? How common. Having reached the limit of her patience, Katherine had had quite enough. "Excuse me young lady... I am not sure how many laws of etiquette you have just broken but I think it's fair to say there are quite a few."

"Firstly, it is unacceptable to refer to a woman as poppet. I am Katherine but you may refer to me as ma'am, or miss. Secondly, I am an extremely busy woman and I never invited you to sit at my table. I have extremely important work to do and I fear you may be nothing more than a..." Katherine eyed Daphne slowly as she sat chomping on her green sweets, "... rather vulgar inconvenience. If you don't mind, I would much appreciate it if you kept the history of your sexual experiences to yourself and returned to your own table."

Giving Daphne a thin and tight smile, Katherine picked up her pen and tried to find the last sentence she had checked over in her document before realising there was something else she had to address. "Oh, and if you could get me another coffee as you ruined the last one." Katherine stated, indicating the coffee which the green sweet was still floating in and had seemed to melt slightly due to the heat.

"That will be all."

In the same manner of a cow chewing its cud, Daphne sat across from the pretty lady and listened to her speak. Daphne was listening, though her only real reaction was to grow a little redder in the face as the lesson in manners went on. Internally she was putting the woman's complaints into reasoning that made more sense to her. Eventually it became clear that the woman was not nice at all, and Daphne began to think of her as a 'big, fat meanie-head.' Feeling quite chastised, by the time time the redhead had slowed down with her speech, Daphne's face had fallen with her sadness.

She had honestly thought one was supposed to be open about the pain and suffering of sexual abuse. You were supposed to write to your government representatives and tell them about it. You were supposed to tell others who were afraid to talk about it.

Of course, Daphne had never really been sexually abused.

"Oh, and if you could get me another coffee as you ruined the last one."

Daphne's lip trembled in warning of what was around the corner.

"That will be all."

Huge tears streamed down Daphne's cheeks. She buried her face in her hands as her shoulders began to shudder with the effort of her increasingly louder sobbing. While she cried, her voice became thick and she sniffled constantly. "I was just trying to do the right thing by taaalking about it," she whined to the perfect stranger. "I d-d-don't have any more," she sniffled loudly, "moneeeey and I ruined your coffee and I made," she hiccuped a little, "you angry and I thought y-y-you were so nice and preeetty but you're," Daphne's shoulders were now racked with her sobbing, "mad at me and I feel like you're being mean when I was just trying to be niiiice and I'm s-s-sooooorry about your coffee."

[[OOC -- I just thought I would say that while Daphne is a total twit, I am by no means trying to demean the efforts of the survivors of sexual abuse. I fully support efforts by those survivors to bring the subject into the public eye in order for the purposes of knowledge and taking back the power silence deprives them off.]]

Realising that the girl wasn't going to just get up and leave, Katherine let out a sigh of frustration. She didn't have many options, most people seemed to take heed when Katherine was blunt with them. In fact, Katherine often found that her bluntness meant that most people don't want to talk to her at all. This however wasn't the case with this girl.

"I was just trying to do the right thing by taaalking about it, I d-d-don't have any more, moneeeey and I ruined your coffee and I made, you angry and I thought y-y-you were so nice and preeetty but you're,mad at me and I feel like you're being mean when I was just trying to be niiiice and I'm s-s-sooooorry about your coffee." The entire spiel was mixed with sniffing, hiccuping and eventually convulsive sobbing.

Sitting upright and leaning as far away from the girl as she possibly could, Katherine's eyes widened at the horror that sat before her. Suddenly thrown head first into a situation that she had no idea what to do with, Katherine made a mental list of her priorities. Quietly picking up her report, she placed it gently back into its folder, smoothing any wrinkles before putting it back in her bag. To ensure it doesn't get wet.

Her priorities sorted, Katherine returned her attention to the emotional disaster before her. Right. What do people do in this situation? Thinking back to books or the few movies that she had seen, Katherine leaned across the table and patted Daphne's arm just once.

"There, there." She said before retreating back to the safety of her side of the table. That should do it.

A loud, very wet snuffle signalled the end of Daphne's frantic and panicked crying. Her eyes were still rimmed with tears as she looked over to the red head gratefully. Daphne, wrought with emotion at the kindness paid to her, could not manage to smile. In fact, she was on the verge of a new set of tears because she was so touched.

Daphne's bottom lip quivered as she rummaged in her lap, which was obscured by the table. She hiccuped twice until she finally found what she was looking for. Finally smiling, Daphne plopped two sugar-coated gummy lime wedges in front of the yet nameless woman. A drier sniffle indicated that her crying was over for the time.

"Do you like Anime?"

The girl's sobbing finally began to subside and a wave of relief washed over Katherine. She had made the right decision to just show a slight amount of affection. She was quickly realising she was stuck in a quicksand like scenario. Her etiquette prevented her from getting up and walking away from the situation but the scenario she found herself in just now was one from a horror movie.

The minute Daphne began to rummage in her own lap, Katherine realised she'd have to make a run for it. Etiquette was going to have to take a backseat to that inner sense of survival. Regardless, she'd find a way to leave that allowed her to have some decorum. However, the minute that Daphne placed the lime wedges on the table, Katherine instantly leaned backwards as far away from the girl as she could.

"Do you like Anime?" The silence that followed the question was a statement in its own. Katherine searched her inner dictionary for such a term but had no idea what it was. By the sound of it it was some oriental dish. Rather than admit ignorance, something Katherine often refused to do, she preferred to act like she knew what she was talking about and be so convincing in her delivery people actually thought they were wrong.

"I love chinese food."

Attentively Daphne hung on the lady's words as she expressed an affection for Chinese cuisine. Wide-eyed as the redhead finished her proclamation, Daphne looked around, scarcely believing what she had just heard.

"OH MY GOD." Daphne waved her hands at the height of her shoulders ecstatically. "I LOVE CHINESE FOOD TOO!" She happily re-examined the former meanie-butt and all of the fateful occurrences that had brought them together. In several years' time they would look back at this moment, the moment when two of the world's very best of friends met. Daphne's head swam in possibility: bike riding through Chelsea; trying on each other's clothing; eating ice cream in Hyde Park; feeding the chimps at the zoo; pretending to be chimps at the zoo; best friend cuddling and more!

"We should go back to my place, order in some Chinese and watch 'Ah! My Goddess!'" Pleased with her idea and her new friend, Daphne sat back in her chair and sighed with contentment. Soon she and ...

"Oh, by the way, what's your name? I'm Daphne!"

Katherine wasn't used to this kind of discourse, the majority of her conversations involved civility and usually work related topics. These kinds of conversations often left Katherine feeling more than bewildered. This one especially, was proving to be rather taxing.

However, it seemed Katherine's quick thinking about anime being a form of chinese food had been correct. "OH MY GOD. I LOVE CHINESE FOOD TOO!" Not used to being verbally abused and shouted at, Katherine watched as Daphne fanned herself. Katherine's only reaction to this was to stare in abject horror and nod slowly.

This girl was absolutely terrifying, anymore time spent in her company could lead to debauchery or at worst, death. Katherine eyeballed her briefcase. She was seriously contemplating just grabbing it and making a dash out the restaurant. However, etiquette took over as usual. She had never ran out on a bill in her entire life, and she wasn't about to start now.

Her thoughts were interrupted again by the monster-like female. "We should go back to my place, order in some Chinese and watch 'Ah! My Goddess!'" The silence that followed this statement was deafening, until the girl filled it up yet again. "Oh, by the way, what's your name? I'm Daphne!"

The thought of spending anymore time with Daphne who had just introduced herself for a second time, sent shivers up Katherine's spine. She needed to get out of this situation and pronto. She needed to lie, think of something really convincing to say. Katherine was an awful liar, but necessity could turn an amateur into a professional.

"I'm really sorry, I'd love to come to yours Daphne, but I have an appointment with my vet, my... horse has... a bad radish and and... I need to have it removed." Turning to find a waitress, Katherine couldn't see any. Opting for a more direct approach, she flung her hands in the air and waved them dramatically. "WAITRESS!! Cheque please!" she shrieked.

Daphne frowned as the lady declined her offer. She reviewed their conversation, at least the way she recalled it, and could come up with only one offence that could have been the culprit. I forgot her name! Daphne slapped her forehead with an open palm. It begins with a K. Or was it a C? Kitty? Catty? Kismet? An onlooker could easily see the wheels in Daphne's head turning as she tried quickly to figure out the woman's name. No... maybe I was right the first time, and she didn't tell me her name. Katerina? Kayleigh? Kitty? No, I already said no to that one. But who doesn't like kitties? Meanie buttfaced fartheads might not like kitties.

"I'm sorry, Kitty, sometimes I get SO EXCITED." Daphne tossed her head back and laughed. "I SWEAR sometimes I would forget my head if it wasn't crammed onto my neck." She couldn't remember the exact phrasing of the cliché, but was happy enough with what she came up with.

"ANYWAYS, maybe we can chillax some other time!" Daphne scrounged around her bag for a pen while Kitty tried to catch the eye of a server. "We can order five kinds of Chinese food and have a 'Devil May Cry' marathon. You'll like that one a lot! It's about this half demon and a girl and another demon girl and motorbikes. Oh! And there's a little girl who's like pretty awesome and gives Dante a hard time." Daphne pulled out her pen with an erratic movement and began scribbling on a napkin. "And there's this cool music and swords and demon hunting. It's really funny, Kitty. It's also a little bit scary. Animes are usually really good at making things so scary and so funny all in the same movie. British films and American films are so conventional and obvious, like any stupidhead can get them. With Anime you have to think," here Daphne tapped her temple with her forefinger and looked at Kitty meaningfully. "- and you like to think, so I think you'll like 'Devil May Cry'."

It seemed the girl was finally getting the hint, she seemed to have slowed down considerably and had stopped talking. Katherine knew this was her time to get out of the situation. "I'm sorry, Kitty, sometimes I get SO EXCITED." Katherine's heart plummeted, the girl was just refusing to give in. There was still no sign of a waitress bringing the cheque. I need to get out of this situation.

The girl continued to ramble on about getting chinese food and watching these programs with Devil's in. She was saying that you had to watch anime, which confused Katherine as she was unsure how chinese food could be watched and be scary at the same time. She must get her food delivered from a rather awful neighbourhood.

The girl opened her mouth again and all Katherine could feel was panic. So used to being fully in control, Katherine was unsure how to keep with the feelings of dread and pounding heart she was experienced. "Wait.. did you just call me Kitty?" Katherine's face contorted into a bewildered expression. "My name is Katherine, not Katy, not Kat, not Kathy. Katherine."

"Anyways, I hate to be rude but I simply must go back to work. It was lovely meeting you Daphne," Katherine stood up and grabbed her briefcase, unsure what to do next she extended a hand and then thought better of it, brushing it down the front of her blouse before coughing with embarrassment. Realising she was being rude, Katherine extended her hand a second time.